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Monday, February 23, 2015

Book Review: Deadly Echoes by Nancy Mehl

Book Description:

After a youth filled
with tragedy and upheaval, Sarah Miller's life is finally settled with
all echoes of the past silent at last. She happily calls Sanctuary her
home and spends her days teaching at the local school.

Sarah's
joy at her recent reunion with her sister, Hannah, and meeting the niece
she didn't know she had is too soon interrupted when Deputy Sheriff
Paul Gleason informs Sarah her sister has been killed.

As she
learns more about Hannah's death, the circumstances are eerily similar
to their parents' murder. Sarah enlists Paul's help in digging deeper
into the murders the police are dismissing as burglaries gone wrong.
Paul's concern encourages Sarah's growing feelings for him, but as their
investigation peels back the layers of lies almost twenty years old,
they get close to uncovering the truth one person will do anything to
hide--even if that means coming after the last remaining members of the
Miller family.

Book Review:

Apparently I've been reading a lot of series books lately :) This book is book 2 of the Finding Sanctuary Series. I've never read this author before and obviously didn't start out with book 1. While it would have been nice to have read the first book, it wasn't absolutely necessary. In fact, there are so many characters in the story that I didn't know who the first story was even about. They all sounded like they would make interesting stories. I love the idea of a small community looking out for each other like they did in this novel. I was not expecting it to have a Mennonite slant to it, and that threw me for a little bit. I don't know much about that culture, so I was a a little confused but I loved how the main character took the parts she liked from the different cultures and incorporated it into her own life. People would be a lot nicer if we looked at the good parts of things that were different than just focusing on how different they are...and now I'm getting down from my preaching box :)
I loved how Sarah figured out that she didn't need to keep comparing herself to others, that God made her for a reason, and who He made her was good enough.

Paul is great, but I didn't really get the romance between the two. I mean, it was stated and said, but...I just didn't feel it. I don't know that you could really classify this as a romance novel because they decide to put everything on hold till all the suspense if over. Although, I did enjoy the part where Paul chokes on his cake when Sarah outright asks him if he likes her. That made me laugh a little :) I think the thing I struggled with the most of the first person point-of-view. I think the story would have flowed better with a different-point-of view. It just made it really hard for me to really engage with the novel or any of the other characters. While I didn't guess outright who the bad guy was...I wasn't surprised by him either.

Overall it is a quick easy mind-candy type read. I can't really see myself reading it again, but if you have some time for a clean christian romantic suspense, it's definitely an option.

Title: Deadly Echoes
Author: Nancy Mehl
Publisher: Bethany House
Published: January 2015
ISBN: 0764211587
Source: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for a review.